Read the 2 assigned articles posted at the bottom of this page (and listed on your syllabus).
Prepare to answer 1 of the questions below in class on Monday.
Post a response to the assigned reading in the "Discussion" section above (any topic you choose).
Respond to 2 other posts.
On this page you will find questions to study for your write on Monday, February 1st, sample responses from previous students, and the two assigned readings.
PLEASE NOTE: YOU WILL JUST NEED TO WRITE A RESPONSE TO ONE OF THE QUESTIONS BELOW.
On February 1st, we will begin our class with some writing in response to the questions below. You will be asked to select 1 from the 4 questions. When responding, make sure you cite specific examples from the readings or someone else’s comments.
1.) Describe how, after our first class, you have clarified or revised your reasons for wanting to be a teacher.
2.) Articulate and describe at least 2 blueprints you have identified as guiding principles you will take with you as you construct your teaching life.
3.) Identify and describe a challenge or benefit that will influence your development as a teacher in the current educational context you will soon enter. This question relies on your prior knowledge, but if it interests you, check out my power-point and the student response on this topic below.
4.) Take issue with one of the perspectives you encounter in your reading this week. With whom or what do you disagree with and why?
Some sample "short answer quiz" responses: (anonymous)
Question:Identify and describe a challenge or benefit in the current educational context you will soon enter.
Education is constantly being reformed. George Bush set up No Child Left Behind to try and fix many of the problems in public schools, but it is difficult to fix these problems when the playing field for students is so diverse. The statistics in Teaching in the secondary school describe the student population as 5% immigrants with English not their first language (p. 35), one out of every six children is living in a family with an income below the poverty line (this was in 2002, and these numbers could definitely have changed). Adolescence is already an extremely difficult time in a person's life. Now there are education reforms, like No Child Left Behind that dictate how a taecher can teach, and what they can taech. Not all students learn the same way, and NCLB does not allow for diverse teaching for studeents to excel. I look back on my high school experience and fieldwork observations and both schools look untouched by NCLB. These affluent schools don't have to worry as much about test scores and have the opportunity to teach different subjects and offer college courses, whereas poorer school districts are strugglingto find money for supplies and pass students. Then if they perform poorly on NCLB, they could lose more funding. teachers are struggling from NCLB, and facing challenges like teaching to a test, which takes away creativity, which was a reason a wanted to become a teacher. Money is always a challenge. This is all intensified by NCLB.
Question:Articulate and describe at least 2 blueprints you have identified as guiding principles you will take with you as you construct your teaching life.
The blueprints that I have chosen as guiding principles that I will take with me as I construct my teaching life are: Acknowledging the good and learning from your mistakes. Acknowledging the good: This also stood out to me when we read Mali's poem, when he mentions calling home and having "parents trembling" and then tells those parents something great that their child did that day. This kind of hits close to home. I have a brother who was not the best student and my parents would always receive calls about his misbehavior. He eventually dropped out and they never received another call from a teacher, even though both my sister and i were still in school. I wasn't a terrible student adn I wasn't a straight A student either, but I was a good person and I worked very hard to get where I am. Sometimes I had wished my parents received phone calss that let them know I was doing well and was a good person. I feel like it is something that I as a teacher need to do in order to develop good relationships with my students. It's a way of showing respect, so that you can earn that from your students. This will also help build your students' confidence, which was a tip for new teachers in the text book. Also, it would probably motivate students tod o even better after their teacher and parents praise them for their actions. Learn from your mistakes: The New Teacher Book brought this blue print to my list. In Jury Duty Saved my Career, a teacher who struggled when she first starated teaching listed it as a tip for new teachers. Just like being a student, teaching is a learning process, and mistakes can and will be made. The best thing to do is fix your mistake the next day and learn from it. This message should be sent out to our students as well, to keep them motivated and not let them give up if they are struggling.
Question: Describe how, after our first class, you have clarified or revised your reasons for wanting to be a teacher.
After last week's class, I left feeling very inspired, and ready to go, ready to start the new school year. It was actually a perfect way to get my head back into the classroom. The conversations in class were good, but the Ayers reading and the Taylor Mali video are what inspired me. The Taylor Mali poem felt like a pat on the back after two hard years of work. It felt good to remind myself that ya, "I make a Goddamn difference!" (The last line of the Mali poem).
Sometimes it is easy to feel tired and look at all the sacrifices I've made, and wonder if it will ever get easier, less exhausting, if I will every be on top of everything, and if it is possible to go climbing when I get home early just once, once to get home and do something else, when will this time come? But then you watch videos and readings with inspiring passages, and you remind yourself that you are happy and you make a difference, and that it all might be worthwhile being tired and gaining an extra 10 pounds. This is a small sacrifice to make a difference in someone's life, especially when you might be the one person who changed their life.
It wasn't until later, a couple days after class, that I realized another way in which a teacher, Mary Bourgard, has changed my life. She was the teacher I wrote about in class, and I know that I respected her and appreciated everything she had done for me. But that was 12 years ago, and as I had stated in my paper, she was everything that I needed at that time. But now I am a different person, I am a teacher, and yet she is still inspiring and changing my life. She taught me through her actions to be the teacher that I strive to be. So between all of these different examples to say the least, I can say that I feel more inspired than ever before to strive to be a great teacher.
Read the 2 assigned articles posted at the bottom of this page (and listed on your syllabus).
Prepare to answer 1 of the questions below in class on Monday.
Post a response to the assigned reading in the "Discussion" section above (any topic you choose).
Respond to 2 other posts.
On this page you will find questions to study for your write on Monday, February 1st, sample responses from previous students, and the two assigned readings.
PLEASE NOTE: YOU WILL JUST NEED TO WRITE A RESPONSE TO ONE OF THE QUESTIONS BELOW.
On February 1st, we will begin our class with some writing in response to the questions below. You will be asked to select 1 from the 4 questions. When responding, make sure you cite specific examples from the readings or someone else’s comments.
1.) Describe how, after our first class, you have clarified or revised your reasons for wanting to be a teacher.
2.) Articulate and describe at least 2 blueprints you have identified as guiding principles you will take with you as you construct your teaching life.
3.) Identify and describe a challenge or benefit that will influence your development as a teacher in the current educational context you will soon enter. This question relies on your prior knowledge, but if it interests you, check out my power-point and the student response on this topic below.
4.) Take issue with one of the perspectives you encounter in your reading this week. With whom or what do you disagree with and why?
Some sample "short answer quiz" responses: (anonymous)
Question: Identify and describe a challenge or benefit in the current educational context you will soon enter.
Education is constantly being reformed. George Bush set up No Child Left Behind to try and fix many of the problems in public schools, but it is difficult to fix these problems when the playing field for students is so diverse. The statistics in Teaching in the secondary school describe the student population as 5% immigrants with English not their first language (p. 35), one out of every six children is living in a family with an income below the poverty line (this was in 2002, and these numbers could definitely have changed). Adolescence is already an extremely difficult time in a person's life. Now there are education reforms, like No Child Left Behind that dictate how a taecher can teach, and what they can taech. Not all students learn the same way, and NCLB does not allow for diverse teaching for studeents to excel. I look back on my high school experience and fieldwork observations and both schools look untouched by NCLB. These affluent schools don't have to worry as much about test scores and have the opportunity to teach different subjects and offer college courses, whereas poorer school districts are strugglingto find money for supplies and pass students. Then if they perform poorly on NCLB, they could lose more funding. teachers are struggling from NCLB, and facing challenges like teaching to a test, which takes away creativity, which was a reason a wanted to become a teacher. Money is always a challenge. This is all intensified by NCLB.
Question: Articulate and describe at least 2 blueprints you have identified as guiding principles you will take with you as you construct your teaching life.
The blueprints that I have chosen as guiding principles that I will take with me as I construct my teaching life are: Acknowledging the good and learning from your mistakes. Acknowledging the good: This also stood out to me when we read Mali's poem, when he mentions calling home and having "parents trembling" and then tells those parents something great that their child did that day. This kind of hits close to home. I have a brother who was not the best student and my parents would always receive calls about his misbehavior. He eventually dropped out and they never received another call from a teacher, even though both my sister and i were still in school. I wasn't a terrible student adn I wasn't a straight A student either, but I was a good person and I worked very hard to get where I am. Sometimes I had wished my parents received phone calss that let them know I was doing well and was a good person. I feel like it is something that I as a teacher need to do in order to develop good relationships with my students. It's a way of showing respect, so that you can earn that from your students. This will also help build your students' confidence, which was a tip for new teachers in the text book. Also, it would probably motivate students tod o even better after their teacher and parents praise them for their actions. Learn from your mistakes: The New Teacher Book brought this blue print to my list. In Jury Duty Saved my Career, a teacher who struggled when she first starated teaching listed it as a tip for new teachers. Just like being a student, teaching is a learning process, and mistakes can and will be made. The best thing to do is fix your mistake the next day and learn from it. This message should be sent out to our students as well, to keep them motivated and not let them give up if they are struggling.
Question: Describe how, after our first class, you have clarified or revised your reasons for wanting to be a teacher.
After last week's class, I left feeling very inspired, and ready to go, ready to start the new school year. It was actually a perfect way to get my head back into the classroom. The conversations in class were good, but the Ayers reading and the Taylor Mali video are what inspired me. The Taylor Mali poem felt like a pat on the back after two hard years of work. It felt good to remind myself that ya, "I make a Goddamn difference!" (The last line of the Mali poem).
Sometimes it is easy to feel tired and look at all the sacrifices I've made, and wonder if it will ever get easier, less exhausting, if I will every be on top of everything, and if it is possible to go climbing when I get home early just once, once to get home and do something else, when will this time come? But then you watch videos and readings with inspiring passages, and you remind yourself that you are happy and you make a difference, and that it all might be worthwhile being tired and gaining an extra 10 pounds. This is a small sacrifice to make a difference in someone's life, especially when you might be the one person who changed their life.
It wasn't until later, a couple days after class, that I realized another way in which a teacher, Mary Bourgard, has changed my life. She was the teacher I wrote about in class, and I know that I respected her and appreciated everything she had done for me. But that was 12 years ago, and as I had stated in my paper, she was everything that I needed at that time. But now I am a different person, I am a teacher, and yet she is still inspiring and changing my life. She taught me through her actions to be the teacher that I strive to be. So between all of these different examples to say the least, I can say that I feel more inspired than ever before to strive to be a great teacher.
Ayers chapter 1 To Teach